Haiku Windows: tree fort window

Haiku Windows

In the book Haiku: The Art of the Short Poem, editors Yamaguchi and Brooks quote David Lanoue: “A haiku is a window”…

In the following weeks we will look at (or through?) the many possibilities raised by this thought – and you’re invited to join in the fun! Submit an original unpublished poem (or poems) via our Contact Form by Sunday midnight on the theme of the week, including your name as you would like it to appear, and place of residence. I will select from these for the column, and add commentary.

next week’s theme: window shade, window blind

Now for something completely different (although there have been a few of these submitted in past weeks – if I haven’t already posted them, please re-submit!)… this week we turn our attention to curtains, drapes and metal roller shutters – discover what is covering the window…

I look forward to reading your submissions.

Haiku Windows: tree fort window

Memories of the dreams of childhood abound this week… along with many squirrels… three poems receive a few words below…

tree house window
mum’s crying
in the garden

christine eales
uk

How I hope these are tears of joy, tears from laughing… but that was not my initial reading… in this poem the details have been kept to a bare minimum, and again the poet trusts that the reader will fill in the blanks and bring meanings to the poem – and, in my view, the more interpretations the better…

cheeky grins
in a gumtree fork
cubby house window

Marietta McGregor

Here word choice is evident – a play on ‘cheeky grins’ and ‘gum’, and the regional language that places this poem wherever gumtrees are (not the Yukon), as well as the use of ‘cubby house window’, which I understand as tree house window, although I have never heard it before…

tree fort window
my password to enter
signed in crayon

Stephen A. Peters

For some reason, the idea of a password signed in crayon particularly appeals to me – perhaps because I have so many passwords these days I can’t remember them all – but none of them is recorded in that way… also, this again helps to illustrate the power of word choice, and the power of one word – the word ‘crayon’ conveys so much information – it helps the reader place the poem, and puts it into context… it is always wise for a haiku poet to carefully choose the words that can work hard to help make a successful poem…

Here are the rest of my selections for this week:

sharing my space
with the sun
tree fort window

Amy Losak
Teaneck, NJ

a spider’s web
from corner to corner
tree fort window

Andrew Shimield
UK

squirrels scold
through our pane less
tree fort window

Angelee Deodhar

on the lookout
for enemy spies
the parents

Ardelle Hollis Ray

tree house window –
a woodpecker’s knock
every now and then

arvinder kaur
Chandigarh, India

unseen
within the weeping willow
a child’s-eye view

Beverly Acuff Momoi
Mountain View, CA

arguing…
siblings move away from
the tree fort window

Carol Raisfeld

waving to my daughter
from our tree fort window
second childhood

Christina Sng

tree fort
the stars still
beyond reach

Debbi Antebi
London, UK

tree fort window
if only the beanstalk
were higher off the ground

Engin Gülez
Ankara, Turkey

tree fort
from the open window
our laughter again

Eufemia Griffo

abandoned tree fort
on both sides of the window
autumn leaves

Hifsa Ashraf
Pakistan

from our tree fort window
winter branches
embrace a moon dog

Ingrid Baluch

enemy cats
spying on the troops
tree fort window

Jackie Maugh Robinson
Las Vegas Nevada

tree fort window –
spying on our moms
hanging out laundry

Judt Shrode
Tacoma USA

building building
my dream tree house window
is made of stars

Kath Abela Wilson

a cold console glow
frames the old tree fort window
– new war games

Kimberly Esser
Los Angeles, CA

tree fort window
Fido’s upturned face
wishing he were a bird

Madhuri Pillai

tree fort window –
all the little lost things

Margherita Petriccione
Scauri (LT) Italy

tree fort window ripple of a squirrel’s tail

Marilyn Appl Walker
madison, ga, usa

hide and seek
spying friends below from
the tree fort window

Marilyn Ashbaugh

flying clouds
in the tree fort window
a pirate flag

Marta Chocilowska

tree fort window
at the edge of the sky
winter pines

Martha Magenta
England, UK

through
a
tree
house
window
the
noise
of
a
cat’s
shadow

martin gottlieb cohen

tree house window
the first mate
at the wheel

Matthew Markworth
Mason, OH, USA

the tree fort
a window with no
restrictions

Michael Henry Lee

they read comic books
and imagine new worlds –
tree fort window

Michael H. Lester
Los Angeles CA USA

a moonbeam
through the tree fort window
a tawny owl

Mike Gallagher

glimpses through
the leafy bough
tree house window

Nancy Brady, Huron
Ohio, USA

a squirrel
at the tree fort window
harvest time

Olivier Schopfer
Geneva, Switzerland

tree house window
dad points out the last grackle
in the evening

Paul GEIGER

black cat peering
from the tree fort window
bird’s eye view

Peggy Hale Bilbro
Huntsville, Alabama

tree fort window
how perfectly
limbs lock together

Peter Jastermsky

tree fort window
counting the feet
between leaves

Rachel Sutcliffe

wrong password
an apple core misses
the tree fort window

Randy Brooks

red red robin
windownesting
the tree house

Roberta Beary
County Mayo, Ireland

paper airplanes out the tree house window :: pilot dreams

Robin Smith
Wilmington, DE

first sleep-out
the tree fort window glows
with spooky faces

Ron C. Moss
Tasmania, Australia

tree fort
video game
one window replaces another

Ronald K. Craig
Batavia, OH USA

tree fort –
looking out the window
a child and her doll

Rosa Maria Di Salvatore

tin can dangling
from the tree fort window
out of little sister’s reach

Sari Grandstaff
Saugerties, NY, USA

tree fort sleep-over
dad delivers breakfast
through the window

Simon Hanson
Queensland, Australia

tree fort window
the lizard and I
debate

Susan Rogers

Keep Out!
a swarm of bees
through the tree house window

Terri L. French
US

secret kisses
our tree house window
more than a lookout

Tia Haynes

childhood…
full moon in the window
of a tree fort

Tsanka Shishkova

view of the world
from a child’s eyes –
tree house window

Valentina Ranaldi-Adams

falling leaves
my childhood peeps
from tree fort window

Vishnu Kapoor

Katherine Munro lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, and publishes under the name kjmunro. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada and an Associate Member of the League of Canadian Poets. She recently co-edited an anthology of crime-themed haiku called Body of Evidence: a collection of killer ’ku.

There’s something magical about trees, which made this another attractive choice for the window project. Thank you, Kathy, for this, and for including mine.

Interesting that most contributions looked to the real experience of a tree house, imagined or otherwise. Marietta McGregor’s poem brought back memories of home grown entertainment, hard work and consequent fun in the Australian outdoors…a connection with nature, and the accompanying exercise, that many youngsters these days sadly will not experience as play values change.

What fun we had with this week’s crop! A tree fort can be anything – Matthew’s ship, Judt’s and Jackie’s spy hangout. Thank you KJ for mentioning mine. I also thought of the Cheshire Cat’s grin high in the tree in that famous Tenniel illustration for Alice in Wonderland!

I am honored that my haiku was included. I liked the one by martin gottlieb cohen because the shape of the haiku reminded me of a tree trunk. I also liked the one by Ronald K. Craig because it showed the change that took place over time.

Another marvellous set of verses, Kate.
*
wrong password
an apple core misses
the tree fort window
*
Randy Brooks
I can just imagine a disgruntled kid slinging that core in retaliation for non- entry by his/her mates 🙂

congratulations to all poets! i especially enjoyed the poems by debbi antebbi, kath abela wilson, and rosa maria di salvatore. makes me wish i had a tree fort when i was young – but i grew up in a city apartment without a tree in sight!

A fun selection of verses! 🙂
.
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I remember as a child reading so many stories about tree houses.
.
I never had one, but my first childhood home had a smallish pear tree I regularly climbed and stayed til dusk sometimes. I remember it fruiting only once in all the years we were there, and a single pear at that. A friend knocked it off so I never even got a bite from it.
.
.
virtual treehouse
the pear tree memory
of just one
.
Alan Summers
.
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A really magical page of tree forts and memories! 🙂
.
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happy climbing!
.
Alan